This is what every entrepreneur wants to when they are hosting a customer in their establishment: to please them.
Clearly there are many ways to do that. Some of them are more obvious, other not so much (this article will talk about the not-so-obvious side). However, it is unanimous: with unhappy customers, no company survives. Nevertheless, there is a very important factor on this experience that almost every entrepreneur uses: background music. After all, who does not like to listen to music?
However, although this sensory element is crucial, it is very dangerous. It is just because everyone likes to listen to music that putting background music on your establishment is a little bit delicate. Every person has a different music taste. Some of them are more eclectic and liked a bit of every genre. Others are more selective and restricted regarding music. With no fear of getting it wrong, this has nothing to do with genre, economic status or age group. It is easy to find lovers or haters of any music genre no matter if we are man or woman, young or old, wealthy or less privileged.
Taking it into consideration, we have to learn the number one premise about music branding: it cannot be used to please customers. It might seem weird but there are three main reasons that this premise is true.
01: You will lose some customers forever
What is the probability you will please 100% of your customers in your establishment? None. There is no way it can happen. And when you do that based on the argument that you will please the majority of your target, it clearly means that you will displease some minority. Since it is impossible to please everyone, it is okay to displease the minority, right? Wrong! This minority belongs to your target. And do you know the probability this customer come back to your establishment? Something very close to zero. You has just lost a customer forever. And how much does it cost for you to lose a customer forever? If you get to this point, I am sure that you know the answer for this question. Maybe this is one of your biggest fears. The speed and efficiency of a negative comment from an unhappy customer to his friends and relatives is amazingly frightening.
02: You will reduce your selling potential
If you try to please the majority, you tend to do that with hits, songs that are been played everywhere and some of your customers might sing along. Then you are happy and think something like: “My brand’s playlist is awesome! My customers are enjoying a lot!”. Well, you might be directly pleasing some of them but inevitable you are taking away their focus on their buying mode, the consumption feeling. You are using an element that works much better on the unconscious layer to the conscious layer of the brain. This is a serious mistake. Those hits bring a lot of memories to your customer: the night club from last weekend, the journey home-work-home they listen to this song on the radio station, and even the ex-relationship that song was the couple’s song. Many studies about neuroscience evidence that the lack of involuntary focus can reduce the propensity to consumption.
03: You will reduce brand recall
The third and last reason is directly related to the previous one. White the hits bring lots of memories to your customer, good or bad (hope at least good memories), they reduce any possibility to generate a direct association from the that music playlist with your brand. Your customers will definitely not spend half an hour in your store, for example, listening to hits and creating a relation with your brand. Forget about it. There are many more memories on the queue before you. That means your brand recall is almost nothing. If your brand is not remembered by your customers, they are less loyal to you and your return rate will be drastically reduced. It will be natural that your business will be less sustainable on the long run.
Since you bring more identity to your audio atmosphere, related to your brand and in perfect harmony with all your customer experience – from the visual identity to your product itself and how your customer will consume it – and also involving b-sides music, less hits, you will probably enhance your sales and customer loyalty. You indirectly please your customer, but on an unconscious layer from the brain. This is a much more smart strategy and this mindset will make all the difference for you, the experience provided and, thus, your business.
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